Strutz Strutz:
DerbyX DerbyX:
On the bad side is that the cost of government just increased substantially.
That's the first thing that came to my mind. All those ridiculous salaries and benefits plus support staff, travel expenses, etc etc etc.
If this bill passes we'll have 338 seats but it could be MUCH worse I guess.
$1:
Pure representation by population is almost impossible in Canada because the Constitution guarantees that no province can have fewer MPs than it has senators. That means Prince Edward Island, with about 141,000 people, is assured of four MPs -- or one for every 35,000 people.
If that ratio were accepted nationally, it would require more than 970 MPs.
Actually, it could be done with just 844 MPs, at 40000 people per MP, as you can take advantage of rounding (3.5 rounds to 4, so divide 141000 by 3.5 and you get just over 40000).
Abolish the Senate and you'd recoup a lot of the increased cost. I'm sure we could get creative and use the now vacant chamber to seat the additional MPs, on benches instead of at desks.
You could also go a decent way to easing the distortions of SMP voting as the ridings would be, for the most part, more than 2.5 times smaller.
It would furthermore be much harder to whip votes with so many more MPs, simply by the logistics of having to approach that many more people to lay down the line, as well as, as has been said in various articles on the subject, because the cost of the penalties that the parties can mete out would be that much less for the backbenchers (who are now on the actual benches mentioned above). So there would be more free votes.
And I totally agree with Bart in that it would be that much harder to buy influence with so many MPs to buy.
The downsides are few and repetetive, the plus sides are many and exciting. I with the idea weren't so casually dismissed.
CKA Uber 
CKA Moderator 
